Buying in Lewis and Clark County, Montana

Lewis and Clark County at a glance

Lewis and Clark County is one of 56 counties and county-equivalents in Montana. Its county seat is Helena. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. Its 2024 Census Bureau population estimate is 75,129 across 3,459 square miles of land — about 22 people per square mile. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 1,461 offenses — 19.45 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Lewis and Clark County

• Property record card — the Lewis and Clark County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Helena; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Lewis and Clark County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Lewis and Clark County is the primary county for 11 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Lewis and Clark County reported 1,461 offenses — 19.45 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (969). The crime section below sets that beside the Montana county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Montana Sexual or Violent Offender Registry (SVOR) (Montana Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Lewis and Clark building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Helena.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Montana.

Reported crime in Lewis and Clark County — FBI 2024

Agencies in Lewis and Clark County reported 1,461 offenses to the FBI in 2024 — 272 violent and 1,189 property offenses. That works out to a reported-crime rate of 19.45 per 1,000 residents (violent 362.0, property 1582.6 per 100,000).

Inside Montana, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 285 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 558 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 56 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (969), aggravated assault (199) and burglary (130).

Coverage: 3 of 3 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 3 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Montana rules that apply in Lewis and Clark County

Traps researched for Montana buyers: Homestead rates require enrollment and 7-month occupancy from 2026; Water, wastewater and water-rights facts are core Montana disclosure items.

Read the full Montana guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Montana counties

All Montana counties · Montana buyer guide